The 2024-25 German Bundesliga season gets underway on Friday with several U.S. men’s national team players set to kick off their campaigns.
Gio Reyna and Kevin Paredes headline the six American players in the Bundesliga heading into the opening weekend. Reyna is back with Borussia Dortmund after spending the second half of last season with Nottingham Forest.
Paredes had a busy summer with the U.S. Olympic Team in Paris, playing a key role in Marko Mitrovic’s squad.
Joe Scally is the lone American defender in the Bundesliga season as he continues with Borussia Moenchengladbach. Scally remains a likely candidate to start at right back, but could also feature at left back if necessary.
Lennard Maloney and Heidenheim will aim to build off of last season’s impressive eighth-place finish. Maloney has been a consistent performer for Heidenheim in each of the last two seasons in the top-two German divisions.
Jordan Pefok is back at Union Berlin and eager to get back amongst the goals for the club. After being loaned out to Borussia Moenchengladbach last season, the American forward could play a large role for Union Berlin.
Timmy Chandler is the oldest American player in the Bundesliga and likely will remain a veteran leader in the Eintracht Frankfurt squad. The 34-year-old heads into his 11th season with the club.
Here is a look at the USMNT players in the German Bundesliga this season:
Gio Reyna, Borussia Dortmund
The 2024-25 Bundesliga season could be one of two things for American star Gio Reyna; the start of a new chapter with the club, or the final curtain to his time in Dortmund.
Reyna returns to Borussia Dortmund after an uneventful loan spell with Nottingham Forest during the second half of last season. The 21-year-old played just 231 minutes with the English Premier League club over 10 appearances.
Now with former Dortmund player Nuri Sahin at the helm, Reyna will hope to see a larger role this season in order to get his club career back on track.
Kevin Paredes, Wolfsburg
21-year-old Kevin Paredes is one of the top young talents in the Bundesliga right now.
Paredes scored three goals in 29 combined appearances for Wolfsburg last season, taking the next step in his overall development. He followed that up by scoring two goals at the Summer Olympics in Paris, France for the United States, providing another glimpse of his long-term potential.
Paredes will reportedly miss the early stages of the season due to a foot injury, but is expected back after the September international break.
Lennard Maloney, FC Heidenheim
Just three years ago, Lennard Maloney was playing in the German fourth-tier with Borussia Dortmund II. Fast forward to now, the 24-year-old is a regular starter in the Bundesliga.
Maloney, a German-born American, made 31 appearances for FC Heidenheim last season, scoring two goals and helping the club earn a European Qualification spot. After making the jump with Heidenheim from the 2. Bundesliga to the Bundesliga last summer, Maloney has added two USMNT caps under his belt.
Heidenheim will have even higher aspirations this season and having a healthy Maloney could be crucial for them to achieve those goals.
Joe Scally, Borussia Moenchengladbach
Joe Scally might only be 21-years-old, but he’s become a seasoned veteran for Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Scally heads into his fourth season with Gladbach, as he closes in on 100 combined appearances for the club. The former NYCFC academy player featured in 35 matches last season, occupying a spot on either end of the backline.
After a busy summer with the USMNT, Scally now turns his attention towards helping Gladbach get back among the European places.
Jordan Pefok, Union Berlin
Jordan Pefok is back in the Union Berlin plans, fresh off a loan spell with Borussia Moenchengladbach last season.
The 28-year-old forward scored seven goals and added four assists for Gladbach, despite dealing with a few injury knocks along the way. Pefok has tallied five goals in 45 career appearances for Union Berlin and could be in a better situation this time around than last summer.
Union Berlin fought off relegation last spring and will hope Pefok can lead them into the top-half this year.
Timmy Chandler, Eintracht Frankfurt
This could very well by Timmy Chandler’s final go-around with Eintracht Frankfurt as a player.
Now in his 11th season with the club, the 34-year-old defender has made just 12 combined appearances over the last two campaigns overall. A former USMNT player, Chandler brings a wealth of experience to the Frankfurt squad and is closing in on 200 career appearances in the Black, Red and White.
It’s not just the salary, it’s also the transfer fee. By October 2021 his transfer value per Transfermrkt peaked at €42 million Euros, or about $46 million dollars US, and even after several bad seasons and myriad injuries it’s still €18 million – or about $20 million US. He’s also making €2.5 million per year – $2.8 million dollars US.
That puts him up in fairly rarified air while also highlighting his predicament, because I don’t think Americans really realize how lopsided salaries are between teams in Europe. The total team payrolls in the Bundesliga go all the way between Bayern Munich – which spends over $300 million US a year in total salaries, to lowly little Heidenheim down at the bottom with just a roughly $12 million total team payroll. Which would incidentally put Heidenheim at the bottom of MLS too.
Heidenheim’s top-paid player makes €1.2 million a year – less than half what Gio makes. But on Dortmund, which is second only to Bayern in payroll, Gio’s a small fry – there are literally 20 players on the squad who make more than Gio, some of them significantly more.
But by the time you get down to the #11 team in the B1 – Mainz – the top-paid player there only makes €2.1 million. Which means there are only 10 teams in the entire Bundesliga who could even aspire to afford Gio and really it’d only be the top 5-6 teams who would really consider it given his high-risk status. That number is very similar in Serie A and La Liga, and even smaller in Ligue 1. Most of the Prem could be he didn’t make a mark with Nottingham last season.
And in the rest of Europe? Maybe a half-dozen other squads, max. So maybe 20-25 clubs in all of Europe. Every team in MLS, on the other hand, could afford to pay his salary because of the DP rules, but they also won’t pay an $18 million transfer fee – MLS has only paid more than that once, for Thiago Almada…and ATL didn’t fully recoup their investment from him either.
So we’re almost certainly talking a loan….and in Europe that means a subsidized one where Dortmund still pays probably half or more of Gio’s salary, and even then the list isn’t going to be infinite.
And if Dortmund wants somebody to pay that full $2.8 million salary, they’re likely going to have to loan him to MLS…though unfortunately for Gio the next MLS transfer window doesn’t open until January 10th. So he may be on the bench for awhile if he can’t get one in Europe and there are not going to be a lengthy list of suitors. He’s too high-risk and too damn expensive.
Sorry, whoops. This was supposed to be a response to johnny99 down below.
I think St Louis offered Norwich a 20 million transfer fee for Sargent. I think an MLS club could have made the math work, both transfer and salary if Gio was interested. The attempts to bring in Sarge and Wes support that. I’d guess as Johnny99 pointed out they’d probably take less for Gio’s transfer given he was bought cheaply. Gio could make this all go fairly smoothly if he’s willing to take less. Most of the time players renegotiate after a transfer anyway so if he wanted to go play at Mainz he could just agree to a lower salary. It’s not really 20-25 teams that can afford him, it’s 40-50 if he’s willing to take a pay cut. I don’t judge anyone for wanting to get paid, but he’s young he can make that lost wages back with a good next stop.
JR, you’re missing the other half. (1) as this poster and i were saying. there is a limited set of teams that can afford the price. but what is being missed is (2) they don’t necessarily want you, or they have other choices or competition. or they see you as bench. for the guys like pulisic and mckennie and reyna the issue is finding suitors with enough money to buy but that also — and this is a key part — have a starting role for you.
that you aren’t just getting bought to be a sub again. you want not just any old move but a positive one. the catch 22 is many of these teams that can afford our better guys can also afford to stock up.
IV: that is certainly true, but I do think Gio and/or Claudio are playing a role in this not working out. It seems like they are probably nixing places he could go and start because they are not prestigious enough or willing to pay him his current salary.
obviously an important time period to be at a helpful club, playing alot, and looking good, as the NT has a new coach coming in. short of it being a berhalter devotee because poch can’t get CFC sorted, there will likely be a roster reset and this is a fresh chance to make a new impression.
hopefully the new coach is more guided by long term talent than short term form but reyna and mckennie are undermining themselves by allowing them to be in “may rarely play” club situations, right at a potential pivot point.
Not quite sure what to make of Paredes. He does a whole lot of nothing way too much of the time, doesn’t remind anyone he’s even on the field.
Then every so often he flashes, and you’re like: whoa. So I get the sense he’s talented but he’s inconsistent enough I’m not quite sure what his ceiling is. I do like the fact that he’s a natural lefty attacking player; there aren’t a ton of those out there. He was just sort of breaking into both Wolfsberg and the USMNT lineup last year so I do think we’ll get a better sense of his potential this year.
“Gio Reyna…… among USMNT players to watch in Bundesliga”
Yeah it he can actually get off the bench
”
BETTING
Reyna Dortmund Needs to PlayGetty/GOAL
Ryan Tolmich
20 Aug 2024 11:16-04:00
1
Tipping point: Gio Reyna’s career is in the balance, as USMNT star’s future at Borussia Dortmund remains unclear
Analysis
G. Reyna
USA
Borussia Dortmund
Bundesliga
FEATURES
Transfers
Borussia Dortmund vs Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt
The once-promising USMNT midfielder is nearly 22, and lack of playing time has stagnated his progress
“Reyna’s season started as most of his other games have started over recent years: on the bench. Borussia Dortmund’s campaign began last weekend with a lopsided DFB-Pokal win over a lower-league team, and Reyna once again had a front-row seat to it all.
It didn’t matter that Dortmund were cruising 4-1 against Phonix Lubeck with most of their starters on the field. Reyna sat on the sidelines as Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi started, and then as Julian Duranville and Donyell Malen came off the bench. The Dortmund attack is still crowded and, even when the club is smashing the opponent in their way, Reyna is still crowded out.
With just days, not weeks, left in the transfer window, that fact feels even more important. Reyna is at an important tipping point in his career, a moment in which he can no longer afford to waste time. Just being at one of the biggest clubs in the world isn’t helpful anymore, not as much as, you know, actually playing.”
Goal.com
Feels like Cole Campbell is likely to get more minutes for BvB than Gio at this point.
It’s been pretty obvious Dortmund has become toxic for him and he needs out, but he also has a high price tag, a lengthy history of injuries, and a reputation as a talented diva. Anybody who gets him is going to have to pay a fair bit and it’s a total roll of the dice…and he’s also a pure 10, which sort of limits his opportunities because those have fallen out of favor in Europe unless they’re just magicians and that much better than anyone else, and those are rare ducks indeed. And Reyna’s not there yet.
Part of me wonders if his real ticket is MLS, at least over the short term. MLS is a 10’s league, because when you’re allowed just three DP’s those three have to be as impactful as possible and so if you’re going to drop money it tends to be on the spine. Which is exactly why the league has attracted so many very good ones…including some guy called Lionel Messi.
Whole lot of teams in MLS can and would pay Reyna’s price tag, and he’d absolutely be featured at the spot he’s best in. And MLS has quietly become probably the eighth or ninth best league in the world.
I think he could do a whole lot worse. Nobody doubts the guy’s ceiling but what he really needs now is to play.
Q – why would Reyna have a high price tag? Dortmund paid little (or nothing) for him as they signed him from NYCFC’s academy. I’m sure Reyna would want as high a salary as he could get, just like any player, but the past year or two may have lowered his expectations. Seems like he’d be more than happy to go somewhere where he’s going to play, even if it means a little less money.
reyna needs to move someplace else. i don’t care what vague promises dortmund gave, they subbed him into the villa friendly and then didn’t play him a minute in the cup game. cup games are usually when the B teamers do see the field.
German teams usually play starters in the Pokal, because it’s their first game of the season and as it goes on they typically play on the weekend so it doesn’t cause fixture congestion like the FA Cup that is often midweek.
j99: as i was saying re mckennie, some component of the price seems to be the mere fact you are at dortmund — even if they barely play you. and then the price seems to be set by your best play and not the cold blooded evaluation of you as surplus that is motivating transfer in the first place. which, you are right, is a discrepancy.
gio had for years done well by his dortmund choice, so i can’t knock it overall for him, but the catch 22 i see in such big club signings is what you are getting at, that the players seem overpriced and that shrinks their market when the big club loses interest. to me it’s why so many end up on loan rather than sold where they will play. gio is probably worth $20m even sitting dortmund’s bench which means no dutch team will touch him and it narrows who else will. it’s then easy to get stuck in a loop where the parent team is over it but you can’t get bought because $20-30m is pricy for a guy where most of his club experience is sub, plus how forest went.
one reason i was critical of his signing the extension was that only drags out this process. he needs to be available on a free where the fee isn’t an issue and his market resets. but by extending to do forest he’s still under deal to 26. and to me making me extend to go on loan is perverse when you don’t seem to actually want me, and no one seems to want to do the transfer or loan fees being asked.
surely the kid is going on loan someplace this fall. why would you keep him to rot? he’s too valuable, if but financially, to pick up dust on their bench.
personally i think reyna needs to fire his agent. the forest move proved dumb as a choice of loan showcase — basically repeated his dortmund issues at a worse club, when what he needs are health, playing time, and productivity — and they lost the game of chicken with dortmund by extending.
and i wouldn’t be naively showing up for camp ready to play for dortmund each summer, i’d be arriving with some loan options sorted, every year. “PSV, rangers, and RBS want me on loan, here are their fee offers, sign down there and get me out of here.”